Author: Rebecca Kelley

Last week reddit cofounder Steve Huffmann confessed that when he and Alexis Ohanian first launched the now hugely popular social news site, they created hundreds of fake user accounts to make the site seem more popular than it actually was. They used the “dummy accounts” to submit the type of content they found interesting or compelling, which in turn helped …

Last week I wrote about how FunnyJunk was threatening to take legal action against Matt Inman, aka The Oatmeal, unless he forked over $20,000 for making “false statements” about their website and for having the audacity to outrank them for searches for their own brand. Rather than cave to this blatantly absurd threat, Matt instead called for fans of The …

My friend Matt Inman, who I’m sure many of you know as The Oatmeal, has caused quite the media stir this week, and he has FunnyJunk to blame (or thank, depending on how you look at it). On the slim chance you aren’t aware of what’s happening, I’ll get you up to speed. Matt creates popular web comics, and like …

Occasionally I see this commercial on TV for a credit union. It tries to be hip and edgy in a Poochie the Dog sort of way in a sad, desperate attempt to stand out and seem relevant, yet ironically I couldn’t tell you the name of the company if you held a gun to my head. The commercial starts off …

Last fall Demand Media announced they were cutting back on the number of freelancers they were paying to churn out thousands of articles for their websites. Until then they had been well known for their “content farm,” but the company decided to shift their focus to “more targeted categories and other forms of content such as slide shows, video series …

I signed up for Foursquare, the app that lets you check into various locations and unlock badges and deals, shortly after it launched (yes, I’m pulling the “hipster” card on you) at the suggestion of a friend. It was a novel concept at the time, and I found the gaming aspects to be a great way to stay engaged with …

I’m currently training for an Ironman. It’s not my first time tackling the distance–I completed my first Ironman in 2010, and have been involved in endurance sports since 2006. Whenever a non-triathlete or someone who isn’t familiar with the sport hears that I’m planning to race in an Ironman this August, the response is generally the same: “Wow, I can’t …

Rovio, the Finnish company behind the insanely popular Angry Birds series of games, announced that they’re working on a cartoon series based on the game that will debut this fall. This was after the studio’s head of animation Nick Dorra said they were envisioning a feature film that won’t be ready for a couple years. And after they’ve released Angry …

The social news site reddit is a marvelous beast. Comprised of countless user-created categories, it’s a haven for all sorts of information and interactions. There are subreddits about world news, fitness, video games, humor, TV shows such as The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, politics, and everything in between. One popular section is called “IAMA,” in which anyone can …

Generally, I’m a fan of enabling comments on your personal or professional blog. Most of the time it’s a win-win–you can facilitate a discussion among your readers, address any feedback that gets brought up, and get free unique content for your site (blog comments can often bring in some long-tail search traffic). It’s an easy way to interact with the …